An Old Teacher's Nostalgia

Published on June 18, 2004 By stevendedalus In History

Perhaps the greatest challenge is the permissiveness of society and its educators that have led us to the brink of anarchic disaster. Either we insist on conventional skills, perhaps refurbished by modern techniques; either we demand more of ourselves, of the parents and of the students in the art of teaching and learning in order to temper society’s iconoclastic kick under the guise of free expression and self-identity, or we lose the whole ball game of national and human identity governed by a high-minded rationale without which self-identity is a journey into our baser parts, the animal within all of us.

An excerpt of my 1970 letter to the membership of a local teachers' organization.

Comments

Gerry Atrick

on Jun 18, 2004

Richard,
Although this is short I will deal with it in sections:
In your first paragraph:

Perhaps the greatest challenge is the permissiveness of society and its educators that have led us to the brink of anarchic disaster.

you say 'society' and it's 'educators' have led us to 'anarchic disaster'. Allright, but I feel society is far stronger than the educators with governments and so they will give far more respect to 'public opinion' than to the opinion of the educators. Many people feel that educators are some left wing cabal whose aim is to pervert our youngsters...I believe this is a load of crap.
In the second section:

we insist on conventional skills, perhaps refurbished by modern techniques; either we demand more of ourselves, of the parents and of the students in the art of teaching and learning in order to temper society’s iconoclastic kick under the guise of free expression and self-identity, or we lose the whole ball game of national and human identity governed by a high-minded rationale without which self-identity is a journey into our baser parts, the animal within all of us.

Sorry Richard but this to me is extremely tortured English, I wrote an article on it which was read by a whole 18 people...thats read not commented on.... but I no matter, I felt it was valid.
What I believe you are saying is that we need to revert to a strict learning regime of 'the old days' . Many parents would agree with this ideal but I do not necessarily agree that you can separate learning with discipline....it seems to me that you want learning techniques to advance but not the 'social side' of school (i.e. discipline) to progress...David Copperfield's 'this boy bites'. I may have this wrong, so please correct me if I am.
This article, to me, seems to be like holding back a tidal wave with sandbags.....the tidal wave will always win....so my view is we should adapt with trying to live with it rather than fight it.....but you probably see me as part of the problem.

Gerry Atrick

on Jun 18, 2004

Wow, I just realised my reply was longer than the original

stevendedalus

on Jun 18, 2004

Many people feel that educators are some left wing cabal whose aim is to pervert our youngsters...I believe this is a load of crap.

Not in the seething sixties and seventies.
This is a 1970 excerpt from a longer letter. I believe in your second clip that you missed the implication that learning disciplines and behavior are one and the same.

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